There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

All | Ashley | Natalie | David | Sheila | Jonathan | James | Abi | Fiona | Community_Action_International | Project Mongolia | Sarah | Emily | Dana | Selina | Lucy | Hannah | Sally | Lucille | Martyn

Wednesday Oct 05, 2011

Reflections on our achievement

 

TWM

I wonder what I'd be doing if I weren't on this trip. I'm fairly I wouldn't be writing this, watching the Polish countryside on a sleeper from Moscow to Cologne. Whatever I'd be doing, it certainly wouldn't have been as rewarding, productive or as memorable as this trip.

Memorable is certainly the word when describing some of the things we've been doing. One in particular is the last workshop we gave to school children in Bulgan, roughly 10 hours from Ulaan Baatar. I felt that that workshop was the ideal thing to present to those children, eventhough we had to adapt the workshop a lot in order to present it outside with the beautiful mountain backdrop. For me that showed us that we could think on our feet and adapt to any situation. I also felt that the group was a unit reliant on each other whenever any of us needed help.

Though there were some moments where that group dynamic was off. These tended to happen when one of the group felt left out or felt unsupported in some way, when these feelings became apparent they permeated through the group and really flattened the group dynamic. I think this proves how close we are as a group. Though we have all come from different backgrounds, we've all come together complementing our differences and relishing our similarities.

Ipso facto, in conclusion, I feel like I can use the skills I've learnt and developed on this trip to tell our story not only after getting off the train but to use it to help future generations to create their own stories.

ANTHONY

I am really happy I came on the trip. It has been a great way to spend a month; I've enjoyed delivering workshops even though we had minimum time to prepare. It has been a a pleasure to be part of the group even when we were stuck on a train for 8 days and shared a room with everyone for the duration of our stay in Mongolia. I hope I can stay involved with Dyfodol. Mongolia is an amazing country with many religious beliefs. It was a pleasure to experience the nomadic life and ride horses, play chess, see the palace, meet Green bell, visit museums, go to the traditional music concert, meet the Minister, meet the nomadic children and much much more.

If you've enjoyed the snippets that you've read about the Project Mongolia story on Do-it, head over to http://www.dyfodol.org/ for the full story in either English or Welsh!

 

 

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Wednesday Sep 14, 2011

Desertification

So I went to a conference in Mongolia, same format as other international conferences, except you get served sliced cow tongue for lunch.  India, Turkey, Korea, Kazakhstan, a few other 'Stans and reps from embassies in Mongolia gathered together to share information on how to combat desertification in Asia.

It's a big problem... A huge problem.  Especially in Mongolia.  90% of land in Mongolia is vulnerable to desertification.  It's landlocked, mountainous terrain with high altitude.   There is a moisture deficit, low humidity and high temperature fluctuation.  Not a good start.

The word 'Desertification' is pretty self explanatory = Places that weren't deserts are turning into deserts because of climate change and other human activities.
What's exactly is causing it?

Climate Change - As the planet warms up the areas already hot are getting hotter, especially around the equator.
Climate change is also intensifying extreme weather patterns.

Sand storms in Mongolia are spreading deserts far and wide.

Less rain is falling in Mongolia because of climate change and more is evaporating.

People - For a start there are a lot more of us and the population is still rising.

We drink a lot of water and we use a lot doing other stuff like farming and industry.  Development in an area where water is scarce already, is a bit of a no-no, but we do it anyway. In Mongolia the mining industry is using a lot of water where there isn't much already.

When we use the land we often 'over-use' it.  This is called land degradation.  When the land is depleted of nutrients, plants can't grow.  Deserts take over.

Overgrazing is also a big problem - especially in Mongolia.

Developing industry in dry areas often reduces soil productivity - vegetation decreases.  Building stuff like roads and industry doesn't help with the dust.

How does it affect us and the planet?

Desertification affects the ecology on the ground. Plants and animals find it really hard to cope with the changes.  Species are becoming extinct every day.

Humans too are suffering from the lack of water, soil fertility and lack of green cover.  If less food can be grown, less people eat.  Respiratory diseases are on the up because of the atmospheric dust.  People are having to move to places where they have a better chance of survival.  Climate Refugees.  Where do you go?  With huge amounts of people expected to be forced to move due to climate change and the resources wars that it ignites, we're going to have to be  very nice to each other, another thing that historically we ain't very good at.
So a lovely bit of light reading for you, full of joy and inspiration... sorry about that.  But it's all happening, and seeing it first hand was what we did on the 2nd day of the conference.

You see I can hide away in Wales.  It rains ALL THE BLOODY TIME and don't I complain about it.  I long for the sun most of the time but in fact we're pretty damn lucky.

My refugee friends in the Western Sahara, although they don't live there by choice (Morocco is illegally occupying their homeland...), live in the harshest conditions on earth.  They rely entirely on foreign aid.  Not a sustainable situation.  It's a desperate situation.  They certainly don't want to be there.  Most people and plants can't really live in the desert.

Anyway, so the second day was a bit more upbeat.  I snuck onto a field trip to check out some positive action on combating desertification.  It was interesting to hang out with these diplomat types in less formal times.  They behave rather like children, not helped by the Kurkistan delegate cracking open the vodka at 9:30am.

Phase two of a major reforestation project is underway.  A huge 'green belt' of trees is to be planned pretty much across the whole of Mongolia to stop the spread of it's deserts.   This consists of a lot of testing, planting, monitoring, research and training and we went to check out some of the research sites where all the activity was happening.  It's a joint project with Korean and quite impressive.  They've managed to up the survival rate of saplings to planted trees to 90%.

They've done a load of research on the right indigenous trees to plant (Seabuckthorn has risen to great heights in my like list), they seem to have put in a lot of effort and employment into the local community (with a local family looking after the site we visited, in exchange for a bit of space for agroforestry.  
Plus they know a lot about their local trees) and have trained up a load of people to keep the project full of momentum.

Trees take root, they support life, encourage rain fall.  
They are a physical barrier and they break up wind.  They provide shade, habitat, employment, food if managed properly.  All over pretty amazing.
It's not just planting trees that stop deserts from spreading. Stopping the causes in the first place is a much better way.  Sustainable agriculture, better grazing management,greater respect for nature, tighter laws, better technology that has less impact, monitoring, international support and action... these are a few of my favourite things....

Oh and on the way home it snowed and we saw wild horses, something previously eradicated in Mongolia (not snow - that still comes every year, more extreme than ever before).  They are doing well, being looked after.  Efficient management, care and thought has meant that they are thriving and on the increase. See there is hope.
I'll put some more photos up when I don't have to get up in 4 hours
- Kirsti

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The initiation

Isabel, 21, has grown up on the beautiful coast of West Wales, Aberaeron. She is studying law at The University of Bristol at the moment, but she also runs her own organisation called UNfairplay and is a director of Dyfodol. She loves the sea and cycling round Bristol on her speedy bike. Pancakes are her no.1 food.

So, today was our first day in Mongolia getting down to the nitty gritty. A massive day by anyones standards, and one we definitely pulled off.

Chimgee, our main Mongolian contact, has planned our 12 day visit, starting with today. Our first meeting of the day was with the Mongolian Environmental Civil Council (MECC)  which is a council of over 500 Mongolian Environmental Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s for short), that is groups or organisations that do not belong to the government of Mongolia.

I was totally impressed when I heard the sheer number of groups under their umbrella, and by their setup of being funded by donations, larger international organisations, and some funding from the Government (although they stay independent)

What was especially great to see was the number of people who came to meet us, and the fact that except the head honcho, they were all under 30. I learnt a lot about how the MECC lobbies government to amend and create laws to protect the environment, e.g they lobbied to pass a law protecting all water sources and basins in Mongolia from contamination by their VAST mining industry.

Another focus for the day became how mining is affecting Mongolia. According to the MECC, mining for coal, gold and lots of other metals in Mongolia is conducted entirely by corporations from outside Mongolia. Not only does all the profits exit the country via these corporations, the Government has made their life even easier by charging a mere $500 per hectare of land mined, and $1000 a year for access to a source of water!!! Let me repeat that: the profits do not stay in Mongolia, the government makes next to nothing on taxing these wealthy corporations, AND the mining companies import thousands of Chinese workers to work the mines.

Chimgee also nabbed us a meeting with the top climate change scientist in the whole of Mongolia. Sweet. 

He actually said that mining only took up 0.4% of the land in Mongolia. Remember Mongolia is a biiig country though. He was more concerned about land degradation from desertification (where land becomes desert, and then spreads), heavy rains in desert areas washing away further land mass, forests being cut down/degraded, and the degradation is being added to by the nomadic pastoralists whose animals increase degradation by eating everything!

Desertification deserves some focus in Mongolia, what with the Gobi desert in the south set to expand if climate change carries on affecting Mongolia as it has so far. According to this guy Mongolia suffers from the effects of climate change at 3 times the intensity of the world average. The Gobi will spread northwards and will likely desertify the areas where the forests no longer exist because trees are very good at keeping deserts at bay, but without them the conditions are good for desertification. Add to this the water level is consistently dropping in the Steppe area of Mongolia and a recent water census found 100,000 lakes to have dried up already.

To those of us sitting in that office for 45 minutes we learnt a huge amount about the challenges ALREADY facing the Mongolian government and its people. I think it starts to hit home how much of a negative impact we, that is us in the UK, have already contributed to causing.

Last but not least was a rather raucous, although productive, get-together with both Green Bell members (the youth environmental group Chimgee belongs to) and Green Wave members (another environmental group set up amongst university students in Ullan Baatar). I couldn’t believe my eyes when it turned out we were meeting to eat and plan their 350 day of action (Moving Planet, 24th September) at the Loving Hut, which is owned by the ‘The Supreme Master’, a vegan cult leader!! She is a weird weird lady leading an international vegan cult where her minions call her ‘supreme master’ and she gets them to hand out disgusting vegan sandwiches at UN climate talks. I’ve come across her minions and her freaky animal books many a time, and now I’ve discovered her restaurants! 

I have to say I sat there reading the strange menu of ‘red coma’ and ‘summer son’ getting quite freaked out that if I ate the food I would be brainwashed into her cult. Anyway, three hours later we appeared into the cold air light-headed from the soy meat protein and the calamitous but exciting meeting with 19 Mongolians all with different ideas about the subject of their 350 day of action. The meeting had to be ended without any decisions made as they were closing but, hopefully, with some spreading of consensus decision making and basic campaign planning tips. Let’s see how tomorrow’s meeting (also at the Loving Hut) turns out!

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Final thoughts on Trans Siberian by our Rosie

Rosie is 17, from the Cardigan area. She has just finished her GCSE’s at college and is going on to study dance, art (her two favourite things) and world development (inspired by Project Mongolia) at Llanelli College as soon as she returns.

I felt a bit emotional on our last day of the Trans-Mongolia. Beginning our journey on Saturday 27th August traveling here to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, required 7 train changes and moving the clocks forward 7 hours. Living for five nights on the same train I think we had all became quite attached to it. The clunking of the wheels 24/7 and the random jerks, jolts, and halts all seemed so familiar and friendly by the time we left it's hard to imagine how very strange it feels to be sat here in the 'Golden Gobi' guest house, not rocking too and fro.

I mistakenly imagined spending 5 nights on a train as boring and dull - wrong!

As well as having a group of 10 amazing people with me, to share skills and stories with, there was also the other really cool passengers who kindly gave their time telling us their individual stories, about why they were on Trans-Mongolian, through interviews using our newly acquired camera and audio skills! 

Of course, there was also the absolutely spectacular and often unusual scenery: 

• Poland - flat, green fields with occasional farms and minimal trees. 
• Belarus - less farms but more little 'cabin-esque' houses and trees. 
• Russia - expanding, spartan, dusty plains and Peter and the Wolf style looming forest with scattered little villages of oddly shaped houses, painted bright blues and greens.

I doubt any of us will miss that 'creepy Russian guy' (that's another story..), the rancid toilets and the flying inches out of bed in the night. I think that most of us will miss our fellow passengers mainly. 

There was an older man named Jeff, from Denmark, who I first met when he nearly fell over me when I was collecting footage of the sound of the train (it's really noisy where the trains attach to each other). He asked me if I made movies - I wish! He let me interview him and told me all about his job - he travels with his daughter (who I was pleased to meet) to make movies about the world - was became inspired by his daughter who has Downs. The movies are at a pace that suits people like his daughter and introduce the different ways that people can live, etc. he also went on to tell me about the environment in Denmark and how people and the environment affect each other. He was a fascinating person to interview as he has an obvious passion for what he does and about the environment/climate change.

We also all met a young man named Tim from Thailand. He was traveling from London, England, back to his home country after 5 years of studying English at University. We also interviewed him. He even played us tunes on Twm's ukelele. The evening before we all parted he produced 11 friendship bracelets - hand-made, one for each of us! 

I (almost) can't wait for the train journey home!

Rosa X

 

Posted by Project_Mongolia ( 11:52 AM )
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Monday Sep 12, 2011

Taliesin's thoughts on arrival

Editors note: The following blog post was sent to us in Welsh. It has been kindly translated by James Proctor to English, but the welsh version is still intact below.

Taliesin, 16, from Dinorwig enjoys playing rugby and riding his bike. He plays cello for the North Wales Youth Orchestra.

At half past six in the morning we arrived in Ulaan Baatar. Chimgee was waiting for us with a taxi and a car at the station, ready to take us to the hostel. After having breakfast at the hostel we went to our rooms to unpack before going to the nearby park and shops. Before we met up with Chimgee later in the day for dinner, everybody went for a shower and checked Facebook for the first time in 8 days! For dinner we went to the supermarket and bought picnic food which we took the park. In the park some local kids were skateboarding, one of them really stood out. He was really talented and spoke very good English. His name was Batbayar (but he let some of us call him Bill), and he used to live in Virginia for 15 years before he lost his visa and had to return to Mongolia two weeks ago. Bill talked about the scary situation he found when he returned to the country. The people he knew were drinking from 11am, stealing and assaulting women. He saw animals being run over for fun and saw poverty all around. He really wanted to do something, he wanted to get young children away from drugs and drink and onto skateboards.

After returning to the hostel, Sannan and I decided to go to and see Bill again. We got there just as Bill was leaving to go to a different area, we decided to accompany him. When we got to the new place we were persuaded by an old man to drink 'atar', some kind of drink made out of horse milk. It tasted like a mixture of vinegar, urine, sour milk and lemons. Bill told us, "If someone older offers you atar you have to drink it." After this we went to a café, where we were told that Mongolia was the only country in Asia that didn't have a proper skateboarding park. Russia built one in the 1908s and a skateboarding company constructed one too, but the wood was stolen and burnt for heating or sold. We were also told that there were only 25 keen skateboarders in the whole of Mongolia, and only 10 of them had proper boards. Bill told us that he wanted to set-up a skateboarding shop in the city, but he knew it would be a long and hard journey. It was hard to ignore his passion, and we felt like it would be good to help him, so after swapping email addresses we're hoping to be able to post some of his videos on the internet soon and perhaps meet him again!

                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Heddiw nathni cyradd Ulaan Baatar am hanner di chwech yn y bore. Roedd Chimgee yn disgwyl yn y gorsaf, gyda taxi a ceir i mynda ni i'r hostel.  Ar ol cael brewcast yn y hostel, aethom i'r stafell, a dad-pacio cyn mynd i'r parc a'r siopau cyfagos. Cyn cwrdd a Chimgee am cinio, aeth pawb i cael cawod a checkio Gweplyfr am y tro gynta mewn 8 diwrnod! Am cinio aethom i'r arch-farchnad a prynnu picnic , cyn mynd i'r parc . Yn y parc roedd plant lleol yn sglefrfyrddio, ond roedd un y sefyll allan fel bod yn hynod talentog, ac yn siarad saesneg da. Ei enw oedd Batbayar (Bill i popl sy ddim yn dda efo enwa), ac roedd o wedi byw yn Virginia am y 15 mlynadd diwethaf cyn colli ei Visa pythefnos yn ol. Roedd Bill yn son am y sefyllfa ofnadwy yr oedd wedi ffeindio wrth ddod yn ol i Mongolia. Roedd pawb yn Feddw o unarddeg yn y bore, ac yn dwyn a ymosod ar merched ohyd. Roedd o'n weld anifeiliad yn cael ei redeg drosodd am hwyl, a yn weld yr holl dloti o'i amgylch. Roedd ysu i wneud rhywbeth i cael y plant ifanc oddi ar y cyfrifiaduron a alchahol, ac ar i fwrdd sglefrio. Ar ol mynd nol i'r hostel, penderfynodd fi a Sannan i mynd i'w cyfweld, a cyrheuddom y parc fel oedd Bill yn gadael i man sglefrfyrddio arall, lle cafom ein gorfodi, gan hen ddyn i yfed 'atar', llefrith ceffyl wedi ei eplsu, oedd yn flasu fel Vinigr, iwrin, llefrith sur a lemonau. Dywedodd Bill 'If someone older offers you atar you have to drink it'. Ar ol hynu aethom i caffi i ymweld ac o, lle cafom gwybod mai Mongolia oedd yr unig gwlad yn asia heb parc sglefrfyrddio, er gwaetha'r faith i rwsia adeiladu un yn yr 80au, a i cwmni sglefrfyrddio adeiladu un hefyd. Cafodd y pren ei llosgi, ar gweddill ei gwerthu. Dwedodd bod 25 o sglefrfyrddwyr yn holl Mongolia, a dimond tua 10 oedd gan fwrdd iawn. Roedd Bill yn dweud bod o isio dechrau siop sglefrfyrddio yn y ddinas, ond roedd am bod yn taith hir a anodd. Roedd ei angerdd yn anodd anwybyddu, ac roeddem yn teimlo fysa'n da ei helpu, ac ar ol cyfnewid cyfeiriad e-bost, rydym yn gobeithio cael ychydig o'i video's i'w postio yn fuan, ac ella ei cwrdd eto!

 

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Wednesday Aug 31, 2011

Poland - Belarus

This morning we woke up in Poland having slept through Germany overnight on our first sleeper train experience!

After a night of mixed rest, some enjoying the rocking motion, others with an added earful of Polish snore, we all wake up slightly aching from our heavy rucksacks.  The train feels familiar, we've made it our home already.  It's comfy and clean. As you can see, we were all packed into the first sleeper train from Koln to Warsaw]

Poland is somehow different, OK, it's very flat, but there's something else that I can't pin down that gives it that underlying feeling of foreign.

Out the window we saw loads of small holdings, tractors, corn, fields to the horizon and big huge skies…  

The few towns that we do spot are colourful and look relaxed and every now an again we speed through big ugly industrial factories.  People seem to mostly live in flats, using the ground around as a communal outside area.

We quickly arrive into Warsaw, where we are hit with a barrage of smells - fags, piss and exhaust fumes. Luckily we decide to leave our very heavy bags at the station and explore as we've got some time before our connection.  

The further we get away from the station the more beautiful the buildings get.  We head towards the old town on wide pavements and pass through occasional squares that are beautifully ornate.  The buildings have amazing detail, yet seem sturdy and indestructible, everything's spotless.

We found a little square to eat in, whilst trying to persuade Kyle not to spend half his money on a fox fur hat!  People are really friendly and curious, it's a shame we don't have more time...
The tram takes us back to the station, past the huge Palace of Science and Industry (?) a present to the city from Stalin!

We find our way to our next train which will take us from Warsaw, through the rest of Poland, Belarus and eventually to Moscow, Russia.  First impressions of the train: thank god it's only for one night!
A rather larger than life Russian beauty literally pulls us on board and barks us down the corridor.  It smells like old men and more fags and the decor fits nicely with the odour...

After settling it's really not that bad.  Three beds in a cabin along with a handy sink-come table.  Izzy and I get the place to ourselves and spread out.

The hardcore Russian stewardesses get softer and nicer as we trundle through the rest of Poland.  I think they scarred us at first to set the tone.  They supply us with hot water and a few taps on the bum!

At the border between Poland and Belarus they bark us back into our cabin, we obey and in come 2 sets of passport control.  The guards don't smile and don't give anything away when they stare you in the face to check your ID.

After the passport guards have done their thing we come to the strangest train experience of my life!  Because the tracks are different widths in Belarus and beyond the whole train shunts into a warehouse.  Men scurry around below attaching, detaching, bolting, unbolting bits of the train.  Bizarrely this is also an opportunity for some ladies to sell raspberries!  Then all of a sudden the carriage lurches and we slowly begin to rise up into the air!  The train is lifted up so that they can get underneath and do their thing.  Unfortunately this business takes a while and because the toilet flushes straight onto the tracks, the loo is locked shut for a couple of hours, so I can't remember much detail as I was concentrating on other things!

Anyway, after the excitement of hanging in a train wears off, we begin to see some of our team occupying themselves in activities only performed when you're cabin bound e.g. waxing mens legs for fun and breaking things (how do you say 'sorry - it was an accident' in Russian to a big scary lady)!

We eat a meal of nearly cooked noodles, miso soup, some nice fresh salad and finish off the raspberries.
It's easy to feel tired on the road and although we do a lot of sitting down on trains, somehow we're all knackered quite early.  I sleep really well apart from a few times when I'm lifted in the air by a bumpy bit of track…

Next stop Moscow… Can't wait!

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And it begins...

Some of us started in Aberystwyth, some in Borth, some in Mach and some in Cwmbran, what matters is that we all made it to London Euston by the same time!

We arrived in Morden (south London) to enjoy some overnight hospitality from Kirsti’s aunt and her partner.

After an unbelievable feast, which might carry some of us through the entire 8 day journey, we set-to discussing guidelines for the trip (no shaving other people, always wear protection, don’t drink in the day etc) and filling capsules with turmeric. Reminiscent of a scene seconds before a drugs raid, in a front room in Morden last night was a table of people happily lining up their pills and counting them into sandwich bags, excitedly discussing how not to miss a train and how best to deal with rabid dogs. No one can say we are not prepared.

Anyway, turmeric capsules at the ready and each with our rucksacks we traversed the London tube system, some of us for the first time, to the National Science Museum. Through crowded noisy hot tubes and up escalators we emerged in the cool calm of the museum to go on a whirlwind, all-interactive tour of climate change.

After our brief visit to the museum we hopped back on the tube and set off from St Pancras station to catch, as Taliesin put it, our first ‘real train’ from London to Brussels.  We’ll then get a high speed train from Brussels to Cologne and later on tonight the overnight sleeper from Cologne to Warsaw, expect a nice little video tour from our budding film maker Anthony!

Post by Isabel.

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A Welsh and Mongolian Team

Who are we?

We are a team of Welsh & Mongolian young people who are passionate and optimistic about our future. 8 of us are young people from all over Wales, we have 3 fantastic youth workers and the rest of the team we will meet when we get out there.

What are we up to?

We are embarking on a journey to Mongolia by train, brought together by a shared passion for positive youth action whatever our backgrounds.

Why?

By taking on issues head on we believe that outbursts of frustration, like the riots we have just seen, can be avoided and empower young people to feel more able to participate in decision making and in their community.

How?

In Mongolia we will be sharing our collective skills with the Mongolians keen to start a youth environmental movement in a country already affected by climate change.

Us Welsh lot will have a unique opportunity to see the effects climate change first hand which we will use when we get home to inspire others to take action and get involved in the sustainable development projects of Dyfodol (our parent organisation).

Also, we are an organisation core funded by the Welsh Assembly Government so we are trying to use our contact with the Welsh Environment Minister to benefit the young Mongolians relationship with their Government and Environment Minister.....we'll see!

We'll be blogging individually, some in Welsh some in English, and if you want more info on Dyfodol or our other projects check out www.dyfodol.org

Isabel, Anna, Kyle, Rosie, Melody, Sannan, Twm, Kirsti, Robin, Taliesin and Anthony

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